Friday, May 28, 1999

Brian Czarny (of Think New Ideas and PR21) has transplanted himself and is doing well as director, corporate communications
at Mount Laurel, NJ-based DirectWeb. DirectWeb is the first subscription-based service to provide a complete, user-friendly solution for personal computing and the Internet. The fixed monthly subscription price includes a remotely managed and secured state-of-the-art Windows 98-based personal computer, unlimited Internet access, an easy-to-use and consumer-friendly portal and complete technical support.

ShiftKey Software, Inc. (www.shiftkey.com), a leading developer of tools for creating automated online distribution networks, announced the appointment of David B. Mathison as CEO. In his new position, Mathison will focus on ShiftKey’s strategic direction, and implement the appropriate organizational structure for sales, marketing and affiliate partnerships. Mathison joins ShiftKey after five years at Reuters Ltd., most recently as vice president of global syndication at Reuters NewMedia. During his tenure at Reuters, which pioneered the business model of content syndication on the web, Mathison developed and executed business plans for TruQuote and TargetNews, then aggregated Reuters content for those web offerings and for Planet Reuters, an integrated online multimedia current events news service. Prior to joining ShiftKey, Mathison served briefly as CIO of The Carson Group, a privately held New York consulting firm that provides strategic counseling for publicly traded companies seeking to maximize shareholder value. Mathison previously held senior-management-level sales and marketing positions at the start-ups Software Spectrum and Ovid Technologies.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani announced that Charles Millard, who has served as President of the City's Economic Development Corporation (EDC) for the past three-and-a-half years, will leave the Administration to accept a position as a Managing Director with Prudential Securities. In his new position, Mr. Millard, will be the Head of the New York-based practice of Prudential Securities newly created Internet Economy Group.

Bill Bass is now VP of e-commerce, Lands End. He was formerly with Forrester.

Risi Leanne-Wright has moved on from Saatchi & Saatchi's Darwin Digital. She is now working at Saatchi's former sister
agency, Bates Worldwide, in their integrated communications division, 141 Communications.

Icon Digital Photography, a high-end digital imaging studio, announced its new service -- digital photographs for 360 degree
interactive rotation on the internet. In addition, Icon has the in-house capability to retouch and deliver the images web ready.

"The growing ranks of interactive services firms received their first report card today, and many of them are being asked to stay after school, according to the 1999 National Benchmark Study of Client Satisfaction with Interactive Services Firms, reported at the Web Advertising ’99 conference at the Marriott World Trade Center Hotel. A key statistic from the study showed that more than a third of U.S. companies have terminated interactive services firms before projects were completed because of poor job performance. The survey found that interactive services firms are still not fully meeting their clients’ expectations. More than 400 decision makers representing a cross section of United States firms participated in the survey prepared by People | Design | Technology, an independent, research-based consultancy that helps organizations generate better results with their online strategies. The study provides tools to enable interactive services providers and their clients to communicate more effectively and to help ensure that client’s expectations are met, according to Lee Wright, founding principal of People | Design | Technology.

www.getoutraged.com launched successfully as a site that invites Massachusetts residents to vent frustration and share personal stories about the damage caused by smoking and the tobacco industry. Local Alley-er Jason Jercinovic, president of Iguana studios partnered with Arnold Communications, to develop getoutraged.com.

Ruben Perez writes in that he's been working on a "cool project" for the past few months in the marketing and advertising efforts as well as "helping find investors interested in running with Here & Now to meet the approaching broadband freight train." Produced by Erik Vidal (nephew of Gore Vidal), Here & Now is a 24 hour, unedited, live broadband broadcast profiling six Oberlin College housemates. Here And Now -- Real Life, Real Time. http://www.hereandnow.net

GoodNoise Corporation, a seller of downloadable music, announced it signed an agreement to acquire the privately-held Internet Underground Music Archive (IUMA). IUMA, which was founded in 1993, was the Internet's first site to offer unsigned musicians the opportunity to promote and sell their music using the Web. IUMA hosts millions of page views each month and features over 3,500 artists on individual web sites offering unique URLs (bandname.iuma.com).

SmartGirl.com made the print-waves with two articles in USA Today about researching teen girls on-line. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/ctf178.htm -- and the companion article about SmartGirl at http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/ctf181.htm

Global Crossing Ltd. and US WEST, Inc. announced a definitive agreement for a merger that will create a seamless end-to-end local-to-global broadband network, provide integrated telecommunications and data services, and accelerate the deployment of high speed Internet services to local, national and global markets. The new company, which will be called Global Crossing Corporation, will be the first Global and Local Service Provider in an era when traditional RBOCs and long distance carriers are becoming obsolete.

Pixelpark USA will launch a new Internet presence for the
German Information Center on Monday, May 24th to
coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the Federal Republic
of Germany. Don't forget to check out the site's "tiviality"
tivia game - one of the only interactive gaming experiences
to be designed using Macromedia's Flash Generator
technology.

"The Guillemot Championships of the AMD PGL" had the finals of the PGL's
fourth season featuring 16 of North America's top gamers who vyied for more than $100,000 in cash and prizes on 5/21 in NYC. The two-day competition was Webcast live courtesy of Jumpcut, a leading producer of live Internet videocasts, and Vstream, a provider of streaming audio and video services.

iVillage Inc. announced an advertising alliance with Glaxo Wellcome Inc. The $1.7-million, year-long sponsorship package is designed to promote Glaxo Wellcome's leadership position in the increasingly competitive consumer health market and increase consumer awareness of various disease categories. The Glaxo Wellcome sponsorship will advance the consumer experience at iVillage.com's health channel by building interactive resources that allow the network¹s members to develop their own personalized health-awareness programs.

MTV Networks and TCI Music (which will be renamed Liberty Digital in connection with a recently announced transaction) jointly announced an Internet music alliance. Under the terms of the agreement, Liberty Digital will acquire a 10% stake in MTV Networks' online music ventures and MTV Networks online music ventures will acquire SonicNet, one of the Internet's leading music Web sites, from Liberty. Tom Freston, Chairman and CEO, MTV Networks, said, "The acquisition of SonicNet, coupled with the recent acquisition of Imagine Radio, expand the reach of MTV Networks Music Online and are key building blocks for our new Internet initiative scheduled to launch in June.

Wednesday, May 26, 1999

So while earlier in the week there was a panel on "everything you wanted to ask a lawyer but were afraid to ask," Wednesday, May 26th you could find out about "everything you wanted to know about the on-line sex industry but were afraid to ask." NYNMA's panel, "The Frontier Of Business & Technology: What You Can Learn From The Online Sex Industry" drew a large crowd despite the controversy and nervousness of more than a few board members. Panelists included Steve Becker, Lead Internet Strategist, General Media (Penthouse's Parent); Jane Duvall, Editor & Founder, Jane's 'Net Sex Guide'; Rufus Griscom, Founder, Nerve.com; Mark Hardie, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research, Inc.; and Mark Tiarra, CEO, Tiarra Corp; President, United Adult Sites. Sun Microsystems stepped up to the plate to sponsor the reception. Afterwards I chatted with Stephanie Agresta (barnesandnoble.com), the proud Chip Austin (pres. and CEO, bol.com) of barnesandnoble.com's recent IPO (raising $450 million in an initial stock sale), Seth Price--who's now at FreeRide.com, and Damon Torres of Robocast. Chip introduced me to two enterprising young men, Jeffrey Ungar and Geoff Clendenning, from Reflexive Networks, who are giving Linkshare a run for their money. Murray Alter and Tom Hyland of Price Waterhouse Coopers were also out and about at this event, schmoozing with other guests like Ben Austin of Comet Systems and Kevin Sickles of Sun. Even Neeraj Khemlani showed up for some filming he's doing for his documentary on Silicon Alley.

Afterwards attendees enjoyed local brewed Ruffian Ales & Lagers (http://www.ruffianbeer.com) and schmoozed as they mused the outcomes! I had a chance to chat with Greg Belmont of Grand Central Holdings and attornies Steve Filler, Paul Goodman and Travis Gering.

The dressy set of the morning crew convened again faithfully on Tuesday, May 25 at Bryant Park Grill for the breakfastnetwork.com's discussion of meeting demands on on-line customers. The grocer, the fish-hawker and the wanna-be gangster (Stratis Morfogen, pres. and CEO, FultonStreet.com; Tom Furber, president, Hannaford's HomeRuns; and Jason Calacanis, CEO of Silicon Alley Reporter) expounded on who they are, what they think of web sites and what their favorite movies are. Ho-hum. Pass the lox please. I couldn't make heads or tails of what these guys were saying, and they didn’t seem to stay true to on topic, although the rest of the audience seemed transfixed. Some attendees who were paying attention were from Charett Recruiting, Don Schatz of Administaff and Judy Harnick and Sandy Charet of Charet & Associates. Eric Gordon of The Globe.com, Michelle Harris of Blue Marble, Patti Goldfarb (Creative Benefit Solutions), Howard Schwartz of Heynetwork.com (which just spun out 2 weeks ago from Antidote), and Kevin Callahan and Michael Mochnal of Vantage Techonologies came out for the early morning breakfast. Lisa Boyne (former WWWAC board member), Thomas Morey (Snickleways) and Dawn Berber and Ellen Auwater of NYNMA came out too. The panel ended with Stratis doling out live lobsters for those who wanted them! breakfastnetwork.com is a well-produced panel, but we just need to stop the panelists from pontificating too long and stay on topic!

Monday, May 24, 1999

What happens when the Rainbow Room (closed save for private functions due to Cipriani's new ownership) is opened to the public? Well, let me tell you, it's not a pretty site. I think there must've been flyers out at J&R, RCS and other Palm vendors for this Palm VII launch event on Monday, May24th. It seemed every yahoo and his brother were there gobbling up the buffet tables of full course meals and sucking back Cipriani's classic Bellini. One Alleyite who I recognized was Jennifer Runne, the Ironhanded WWWAC ListMom assistant. Demos of the new wireless PDA were fascinating many, but I wasn't impressed with the new functionality. It seemed like a good first attempt at added services, but I'd really like to see business card scanning capabilities with this unit.

What happens when the Rainbow Room (closed save for private functions due to Cipriani's new ownership) is opened to the public? Well, let me tell you, it's not a pretty site. I think there must've been flyers out at J&R, RCS and other Palm vendors for this Palm VII launch event on Monday, May24th. It seemed every yahoo and his brother was there gobbling up the buffet tables of full course meals and sucking back Cipriani's classic Bellini. One Alleyite who I recognized was Jennifer Runne, the Ironhanded WWWAC ListMom assistant. Demos of the new wireless PDA were fascinating many, but I wasn't impressed with the new functionality. It seemed like a good first attempt at added services, but I'd really like to see business card scanning capabilities with this unit.

Thursday, May 20, 1999

Join us in the beautiful Veranda room for cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, wonderfully rich networking opportunties and the chance to meet great people from cool companies, experience Wayport's high-speed connectivity in the beautiful hotel.

Upcoming Months
May 5th -- Cinco de Mayo party in conjunction with Edgewise '99<
May 19th -- The Mansion in Turtle Creek, Dallas, TX
May 20th -- The Driskill, Austin, TX

Every Month
Join me and selected internet industry friends, associates, and business acquaintances for a fine evening with witty and thought-provoking conversations, cocktails to heighten the mood, and complementary hors d'oeuvres.

This Month
May 20th The Driskill, Austin, TX
Veranda
6:00 till 8:30Join us in the beautiful Veranda room for cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, wonderfully rich networking opportunties and the chance to meet great people from cool companies, experience Wayport's high-speed connectivity in the beautiful hotel.

Every Month
Join me and selected internet industry friends, associates, and business acquaintances for a fine evening with witty and thought-provoking conversations, cocktails to heighten the mood, and complementary hors d'oeuvres.Past Months

Wednesday, May 19, 1999

Last week marked the inaugural "Cocktails with Courtney" in a place other than Silicon Alley. Thinking big -- I went straight for the largest state of them all -- Texas. Or, rather, was invited to Texas. I met Brad Gray and Kem McClelland of Wayport Inc. at the AlleyCat News Salon last month, and after some initial discussions we realized there was a connection and interest on both sides to forge into new territory. In addition to Wayport, which provides high-speed access to places people travel (airports, hotels), the May 19th event was also sponsored by Primus Associates (executive recruiters), Novare (high-quality back end networking), R.R. Donnelley Financial, and Trellis Partners (a VC firm). Set in the Promenade room at the luxurious Mansion on Turtle Creek Hotel (rated the country's best hotel), the Dallas event drew a select group of high-tech industry players. The Dallas Cyber Scene isn't as advanced as ours in Silicon Alley and Austin (as you'll soon read). Nonetheless, I had the opportunity to chat with Leland Murphy of Trellis Partners about the community. Seth Palmer -- an Alley transplant -- of Viant brought some other Vianters. Carol Curley of the Women's Growth Capital Fund and Marianne N. Radwan of Seven Rosen Funds introduced themselves and I met Tommy Welch of J.J. W. International. Pliny Gale, relationship manager at IBM e-business, who I met last week at the Earthpledge function, came out for some scrumptious hors d'oeuvres and Felix Racca, President & CEO, Fuego Technology Corp., in a smashing red tie, brought some friends. Cheryl Miller of R.R. Donnelley Financial, a sponsor, was in a beautiful springy suit and representatives of Primus Associates (another sponsor)--Becky Gates, Charles Leadford and Sam Gassett--were out in full force, as were Arlyn Samuelson of Turner Collie & Braden and Michael Segrest of Silver Creek. And while the reception at the Mansion is one of the finest hotels and the service is impeccably prompt, we discussed other venues that might be fun for the next one. Personally, wherever the next "Cocktails…" is, I'd recommend staying at the Mansion--the service, the big fluffy hotel bathrobes, the luxuriously big tub, and the complimentary carrot cake and passion fruit ice tea upon arrival are all little things that make a world-weary traveller happy. High speed Internet access from Wayport really helps too, for those moments when you absolutely *must* check e-mail!

More familiar with the Austin scene, having spent some time there during the South by Southwest Conference this year, I had a bigger list to draw from and more guests. Over 100 guests filled the spacious Veranda Ballroom at The Driskill hotel on Thursday, May 20th. This historic grand-dam hotel oozed old Texas. Cow-fur covered sofas with real saddles as bar stools decorated the lobby and lobby bar. Dark woods, Lone Star state star-patterned carpeting and antique memorabilia in cases and hallways decorated the halls, bookshelves and rooms. My room, while completely renovated, did not have Wayport's services yet, but did have a big iron bed. The Veranda Ballroom also lead out to a grand balcony and the entranceways to this old hotel (with a resident ghost apparently) were impressive as well. Austin's party was sponsored by Primus, Hoovers On-line, R.R. Donnelley and Trellis Partners in addition to Wayport. All the sponsors were so wonderful with their support and help in producing two flawless events and Shannon Martin of Wayport deserves special mention for all her help at the events. In addition to all the exciting Austinites, I got to spend some time with Eric Gould, President of MonkeyMedia, which incidentally won the Silver in Self-Promotion last week at the Clio awards, and Nick West (formerly of NYU's YORB program).

Jon Lebkowsky, communications director at WholeFoods.com, and Honoria, who also works at Wholefoods.com and is the initiator behind CyberOpera.org, came with Knut Graf a new media developer for the hot design shop FrogDesign.

Honoria's CyperOpera "honoria in ciberspazio" is about "isolated and lonely internet travelers who entreat the oracle of cyberspace to transform their dreams of virtual reality into a beautifully woven sexy operatic climax. The opera depicts humans looking for love in cyberspace. Their words generate clones which mirror their desires."

Karen Kreps of NetIngenuity.com and Emily Sopensky of The Iris Company and Cindy Goldsberry, VP, Marketing, AcrossFrontiers International, Inc. came to see the newly refinished grand ballroom. Shane P. Cook (http://home.austin.rr.com/cannibal/) helped out immensely by taking digital photographs at the party. All the other pictures were snapped by Eric Olsson--my Texas colleague, and Anne Yoakam--my NYC friend, who drove down from Oaklahoma City during her wedding preparations for the party). Duncan Hopkins of Syndetic Design, Ingrid Vanderveldt (Dryken Technologies), and Rosie VonZurmuehlen (Alchemy Interactive) all came out to meet and greet other Austinites like Kim Crisler (Fyrehead Creative) and Clay Goodwin (House of Moves). I also got a chance to speak with Andrew Dillon, pres. of Unmall.com, who has been working hard with the other people at Thought Interactive to create on online shopping concept that focuses on high quality, unique and artistic shopping with a local feel.

Some guys from startup Works.com, Bo Holland (pres. and CEO) and Duncan Van Dusen (biz dev. manager) came out with their VC. Will Kreth of Agillion.com, Pam Knight of ISIS Multimedia, and Glen Coleman of KDi had a nice chat. Another hot web development company, FGSquared, had a presence at the party with Doug Collins. After my toast to Texas and my sponsors, Jerry Sullivan of Adams Capital told me I should've had my signature martini glass in hand as I stood at the podium Governor Bush stood at just recently, with the great star of Texas behind me and a banner saying "Friendship," which is the original definition of Texas (tejas) as I was informed.

Welcome to a special sleek edition of The Cyber Scene. Today you have a midweek update on the Clio Awards in addition to some other tasty morsels. I am off to Texas and will have a full report on what's the action around town when I return next week. And without another moment: I present:

Tuesday, May 18, 1999

Clio was one of the nine muses in Greek mythology -- the historian, the proclaimer, the celebrator of accomplishments. Founded in 1959 by Wallace Ross to recognize creative excellence in the advertising industry, this year's Clio Awards marks the inaugural Interactive awards.

I spoke with Andrew Jaffe, executive director of the Clio Awards, and he filled me in on all the new developments and his thoughts regarding this first year of an Interactive category. Recognizing that budgets are still small, people are still trying to learn how to use the Internet the best way and that the development tools are still very crude, Jaffe feels we are at the beginning of a new creative form and the work represented is notable in a few ways. The Internet is (obviously) changing many things in our world, and new media awards are moving beyond industry-specific ones such as The Webbies, AdTech and so forth. Now the "big shows" (Cannes, Clio) are beginning to pay attention to new media and give it some credit.

Jaffe is hopeful for future Clio award entries as he feels with the developments of broadband and cable modems, consumers will be able to absorb messages better when they are smooth and sophisticated as opposed to clunky images.

Among the goals for this year's introduction of Interactive awards are to give encouragement to interactive pioneers and set standards. There were 400 entries and Doubleclick will take the reel of winners to other countries around the world. (After the luncheon on Tuesday, May 18th, Wenda Millard of Doubleclick told me they were first off to Amsterdam.)

Another mission of the Clio's was, according to Jaffe, to bring people to NYC and give them special access to various companies, galleries and Broadway shows. On Monday, May 17th, nineteen interactive agencies opened their doors and welcomed delegates from across the Avenue and across the seas. He said he was "touched by the generosity of Silicon Alley" and that most of the creative directors overseas don't get it yet and aren't as open.

After the Digital Open-House's later that afternoon ChannelSeven.com hosted a cocktail party at the cool, spacious and holistic Obecali restaurant in TriBeCa. Ben Austin and Bill McCloskey of Comet Systems told me all about the fabulous Rich Media Sig and that they will be announcing one of the BIGGEST INITIATIVE's EVER! Wow. Check my calendar on the web (www.TheCyberScene.com) for the info. Cathy Taylor of AdWeek and Adrienne Mann (AdAge) and I conversed a while with Michael Tchong and Dara Tyson. Mara Lipacis looked positively stunning in her springy linen shirt and new do' and announced the raffle winners to the anticipatory crowd. Some companies were there to demo their wares, like Orientation.com, Spree.com, @Home and UnoDosTres.com. I spoke with Russ Walters of UnoDosTres and he told me this Hispanic portal site based in Miami is gaining popularity.

And with that note, I headed up to the MLC's studios to tape our upcoming "Hot Web site of the Week" segment (Zing.com)

And now the moment you've been waiting for. The Awards! All the information will be up on the ClioAwards.com web site, but here are some highlights from the Interactive Awards luncheon on Tuesday, May 18. Among the presenters was Michael Tchong who reflected on how when we started the 80s we had just two "F" words: Facsimile and Fedex and today - it's scary what we can do with viral marketing. He also predicted for us the 16 year old CEO (that'll be a fun launch party -- cupcakes and soda pop)!

GM O'Connell of Modem Media.Poppe Tyson presented the awards and some of the significant winners were Ogilvy and Mather's interactive division, Gray Interactive/KPE and Red Sky Interactive. Ogilvy won the coveted Grand Clio award for their work on IBM's Internet Technology e-culture awards. Gray/KPE won a Silver in Internet Rich Media for a pop-culture-y Pringles site "Popblaster." I liked TBWA/Chiat/Day's Absolute Vodka site "Absolute DJ" and was thrilled to see Austin-based Monkey Media win the Silver in Self-Promotion. NicholsonNY took home the gold in this category for their popular snow-ball fight holiday card. RedSky not only made some noise with their work (Absolute DJ), but San Francisco-based CEO Tim Smith and his wife Anne Vosler brought out their adorable 16 month old Cale Smith to the luncheon!

Andrew Jaffe closed the ceremony with hopes that next year's entries will be better and encouraging words that we're on the right start.

Saturday, May 15, 1999

You may know Vica Vinogradova for her talented work on the Russian Web Girls site or on Sonicnet, or even her professional site, Ladno. But her talents extend beyond all these efforts to more -- and her recent return from Moscow for her birthday gave me the opportunity to hear about some of them. In addition to developing her business in Moscow, she worked on the Kremlin Cup and continues helping build the RWG community on-line. Other guests who came for cheer and celebration were Maya (Kremlin Cup), Katya (designer), Slava Borisov (gromco.com), Anna and Ivan Eliashevish (fashion designer and scientist @ emcore.com), Scott Ettin (Tankboy.com -- and original WWWAC member) and Leonid. Everyone looked great and most women had on wildly artistic outfits on the fine Spring Saturday (5/15) night in Manhattan.

Friday, May 14, 1999

Larry Chase's Web Digest for Marketers popped up into my inbox --
such a nice, well written, useful e-mail on marketing on the web!

Urban Desires has launched a new feature based on the videos of
Chris Cunningham. Cunningham is a very talented, questionably
pessimistic man who has an affinity for electronic music. You can
check out his videos for Squarepusher's "Come on My Selector" and
Apehx Twin's "Come to Daddy" on Urban Desires. Read the
interview and find out why Cunningham thinks films today are crap
(and let us know if you agree).

Nutripeak.com just launched a site that offers more than 1,500
products, from amino acids to weight gainers at discounted prices.
They also feature the latest information on training and workouts for
the serious athlete. There is a shopping cart system where you can
also choose delivery (including next day) and customers who make a
$50 dollar purchase through June will receive a free nutripeak.com
T-shirt and the first thousand customers will receive a free sample of
"effervescent Creatine." Customers can also set up their own "lockers"
where they can store information about their workouts, their
nutritional supplements and other data necessary to ensure a
successful fitness program. An easy-to-use keyword search program
allows customers to pinpoint each product along with prices and
quantities. Several varieties of "custom kits" are tailored for specific
fitness interests such as losing body fat and gaining muscle size;
burning fat and losing weight; increasing energy and building
endurance, and improving sexual performance.

Niehaus Ryan Wong, Inc. (NRW), an Internet and technology public
relations firms, announced plans to open an office in New York. The
announcement is marked by the appointment of Laura Hamilton,
formerly senior vice president of Corporate Communications and
Investor Relations for Cendant Corporation, as managing director to
head the New York office and further expand NRW's investor
relations services. New York has a concentration of creatives --
authors, playwrights, artists, and producers -- who've traditionally
communicated through theater, media, publishing, and advertising,"
said Ed Niehaus, president of NRW. "Leveraging the City's expertise,
we believe that creative advances in Interactive/Internet content will
come out of New York. We want to be the agency that helps these
companies tell their stories to the world." "New York's global financial
community is also a big draw for NRW," Niehaus explains. "New
York is the financial epicenter of the world, so it is very important for
us to help clients communicate with the New York financial
community. Combining our West Coast office's strong ties to the Sand
Hill Road investment community, we believe NRW is uniquely
positioned to offer new forms of Investor Relations services to clients
around the country." NRW plans to bring its expertise in relationship
marketing and sustainable identity strategies eastward to a variety of
East Coast companies. In particular, NRW will help emerging
companies articulate their vision, position and voice in a crowded and
competitive marketplace through its special trademarked service, the
Architecture of Identity. In addition, NRW will offer BI-coastal
communications services to its impressive range of clients including
Yahoo!, Pixar, E-Loan, and Planet Rx. The Internet Foreign Currency
Exchange, which was designed and developed by Octet
(www.octet.com), won the Oxford Global Network the "American
Venture Spring 1999 Award." (go to Award-winning listing (#630) -
Internet Foreign Currency Exchange)

Wednesday, May 12, 1999

IBM's commercials have propelled Big Blue's image from that of a stodgy, stiff, structured and inflexible firm to one of the big companies that's (maybe) the most with it. And now they're targeting Silicon Alley companies in a brave new way. After struggling with ineffective reseller models, IBM came up with their Web Integrators initiative. This program targeted over 100 interactive firms that are not just doing cool sites, but also running critical back-end applications. In exchange for education, training and certification in IBM products and relationship management topics, these companies will offer IBM products and services as a viable "e-business" solution (there's that word again) for their clients. And to kick-off the grand plan was a party at Earthpledge Foundation's fabulously modern carriage house on Wednesday, May 12th. Monte Bartlett of Surge Interactive and Kyle Shannon of Agency.com were two of the firms there, as part of the program. Sam Albert, who tipped me off to this event (thanks, Sam!), dropped

me another revolutionary sound byte with, "IBM is changing its name to EBM" in reference to all the e-mphasis on their "e" words (just look at their ads: e-vulcan, e-cuisine, e-profits, e-tcera).

Leslie Hoff introduced me to the legendary labor attorney Theodore Kheel, who is president of the Earthpledge Foundation and Bob Timpson(general manager of IBM's software group), who came down from Somers, NY. Stuart Gannes (VP, Internet applications, AT&T Labs) came out from of Menlo Park, as did Ryan Magnussen (CEO, Zentropy). We spoke for a bit about the benefits of growing a company organically and building value, and how Zentropy has done that and still grown 300% a year since May 1995. We sampled a bit of the brewed and bottled beer from Cooperstown, NY, (home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame). Nommegang was the darker, fruitier beer, and it went quite well with the homemade, fresh mozzarella that was being spun in front of our eyes. Warm and soaked in Pumpkin Seed oil and sea salt (that’s the key!), this mozzarella was so delicious I had to find out more!

Jonathan White, originally a computer professional, and his wife, Gina, started the Egg Farm Dairy and are intent on "Setting the Dairy Industry Back 100 years." I'll happily go with them if I can have more of that yummy CHEESE too! :) Now, you may be thinking, "what the heck has gotten into Miss Courtney with this cheese fascination." Well, I'm not the only one who loved it -- this company has the distinction of being the only non-Internet investment in Silicon Alley investment darling Bob Lessin's portfolio.

Mark Swanson (president, iXL) and I chatted for a while about all the interesting things he did before coming to NYC. He was the iXL's worldwide CTO, and his first two companies (Digital Image and Swan Interactive Media) were both bought out. Pliny Gale (relationship manager, web integrator initiative) also had some interesting comments on cyber scenes and will be comin' round to my party in Dallas.

Tuesday, May 11, 1999

NYNMA's Venture Downtown, a VC conference for cutting-edge New York new media companies, occurred on May 11th at the New York Hilton. NYNMA is getting good at bringing in the heavy players for its events, thanks to the powerful leadership of Alice O'Rourke and the indefatigable efforts of the NYNMA staff. They all deserve kudos for putting on an event that will assist in raising NY to significant player status among "wired cities" doing noteworthy "stuff."

There were two tracks in the morning and afternoon, a luncheon with keynote from our morning speaker Guy Kawasaki, and a cocktail reception sponsored by Microsoft and ZDNet. The "other" Michael Wolf, author of "The Entertainment Economy: How Mega Media Forces Are Transforming Our Lives" and founder and senior partner of the media & entertainment practice of Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc, gave the morning keynote to a full house. By stopping by in the late morning I was able to meet up with a few notable sponsors, including Tom Hyland, partner and new media group chair at Price Waterhouse Coopers. Burt Alimansky was there telling Jeanine Moss (VP, sales & marketing, NY Business Forums, who was wearing a stunning silver cuff bracelet) and Stan Sandberg (Ladenburg Thalmann--also a sponsor) about my Uncle Bert, who own a successful tie and menswear business (XMI). Stephen Berman (pres., Synergy Capital) and Chris Wood and Chris Patyk (both of Riverside Management Group, LLC) and Howie Schwartz (Antidote Systems) were waiting for Track A companies to start presenting.

A bit later I came back up to meet up with Ben Boissevain (e-Technologies), Jon Perkel and Anna Wong of Mofo.com, and Miriam Eaves of 1ClickCharge. Howard Greenstein of Microsoft told me about some of his new developments, including his recent promotion to Technical Evangelist, Windows Media Technologies. David Friedensohn (CEO of BigStar) came over to say "hello" and introduced me to Gretchen Grant (of Grant Media), who is working with Marc Scarpa of Jumpcut. Bruce Strzelczyk (Richard A. Eisnor) and Gavin McElroy were comparing ties (Bruce won with a fantastic American Flag motif). Greg Arnold (pres.) and Marc Boroditsky (CEO) of Passlogix were there with two of their friends/investors Ross Goldstein and Daniel Schultz (managing partners @ Atlantic Venture Partners). Michael Schwartz (pres., Signal Core) was also sporting a great tie with a fish on it -- in celebration of May and Fly fishing season. I ran into old college buddy Steve Novick (private equity, Lehman Brothers) and VP, Finance DesignerOutlet.com, who was with this new startup's pres. and CEO, Lauren Battista. I also met Michael Werner (director, East Coast partner and ISV relations, Microsoft) and Thomas Kurz (dir. of Eagle Financial Partners).

Raphi Salem (CEO, pres.) of SalemGlobal was charming as ever and reminded me about his newsletter. Jim Chard of 1ClickCharge and John Delaney (Mofo.com) were chatting it up with Mary Sue Blackney (Mofo.com) about the recent "San Jose Mercury News" article about the law firm's domain name, which has been attributed to a vulgar phrase. The article was saying that the firm has been known as "mofo" in legal circles for years, and when web sites were starting up, they took advantage of that and snatched up the domain name. Despite the joke, marketing director Carl Whitaker said "It is very Web-oriented and catchy.'' Multi-tasker extraordinaire Alex Cohen was cutting it up with Felix Knoll (a recent sales hire at Sun). Alex and McAdory Lipscomb helped train the presenters for today's show. He is graduating from Columbia Law School, has an investment fund (KMS Fund, started by Kevin McKullum (who started the Broadway show "Rent"), and has funny Puri pictures of him and his girlfriend in his Palm carrier!

It's the battle of the breakfast seminars! Over the last three weeks I've been at Bogen PR and LPNYTHink's Breakfast Network, the Silicon Alley Breakfast Club, and Siegel and Gale's Interactive Breakfasts 1999 series. Each was unique in its own way. Siegel & Gale's event was Tuesday, May 11th, at the University Club on 5th Avenue. Some heavy-hitters were on this panel: Guy Kawasaki (CEO of garage.com), Nicole Vanderbilt (director, Mindshares program, Jupiter Communications), Emmen Hidgon (assist, VP, T. Rowe Price), David Webster (exec. VP, Siegel & Gale, managing director of the interactive group) and Nick Gould (VP, marketing & biz dev at educational media, Scholastic). The conversation touched upon the pros and cons of real vs. virtual stores, with a focus on eToys vs. Toys 'R Us and Dell vs. Gateway. David commented that he thinks Gateway has a good model that offers the ease of on-line shopping to savvy buyers, but the touch-and-feel features that new online shoppers need. Nicole asked if these companies should be all things to all people, and Emmett pointed out that customer service issues are getting to be more vital, which is why companies like LivePerson.com are so hot. David talked about companies like drugstore.com will obviously run into problems when people who need a prescription in an hour or the next day. Nicole reminded us that the problem with the brick & mortar stores is that for the most part, they don't know who their customers are, and that, in fact, you're probably more anonymous with them than you are with an on-line component. She recalled the first virtual store with a real world presence at The Met, Virtual Emporium.

Guy made a funny comment about a conversation during dinner with some folks at Lucent the previous night. They decided they should give away cars and sell billboard ads for revenue. Haha. Yet, that's our revenue model for the Internet! Among the questions posed to the panel afterwards was "which would you rather be? Dell or Gateway?" They all answered "Dell," except for Nick, who said that he bought Dell even though he'd rather be Gateway. I might vote for Gateway too, considering the troubles I've been having with my new Dell -- Fatal Exception Errors and I are getting a bit too familiar with each other. Unlike the other breakfasts, at least half the audience stayed to schmooz after the event, and I had a chance to catch up with Andrew Zolli (VP, interactive media, Siegel & Gale), Gina Lalli (VP, Siegel & Gale, interactive media) and Jay Sears ( EDGAR 's On-line.) Andrew Raisej said "hello" and reminded me about MOUSE's upcoming June event. I also touched base with Paula Batson of A2B and Laura Berland (EVP), Michael Greene (VP, Digital biz dev) of ORB, the Ecom Advisors, and Marci Weisler and Robert Levitan (Chief Floozer) at Flooz.com. JC Herz was telling Alex Stanton, of Stanton Crenshaw, and me about her new company, which is centered around a web site and documentary on video games.

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